🖌️🎨Leonid Osipovich Pasternak (Itskhok-Leib, Isaak Iosifovich; 1862-1945)

 🖌️🎨Leonid Osipovich Pasternak (Itskhok-Leib, Isaak Iosifovich; 1862-1945) - impressionist artist, teacher, professor, academician, father of the poet Boris Pasternak.

On April 3, 1862, in Odessa, in a large (six children) Jewish family of the innkeeper Iosif Pasternak and his wife Leah, a son, Itzhak-Leib, was born - the future artist Leonid Pasternak.
Itzhak (Isaak)'s grandfather, Akiva Pasternak, came to Odessa from Galicia at the beginning of the 19th century; In 1813, his son Joseph was born, who eventually became the head of a large family and the owner of an inn near the New Market on Koblevskaya (the lost house was on the odd side of the street between Olgievskaya and Konnaya).
Joseph Pasternak strove to give his children an education, and young Isaac entered the prestigious Richelieu Gymnasium. He studied successfully, but he was increasingly drawn to drawing, an ability for which he had shown in early childhood. At the age of seven, he received his first commission from a neighboring janitor - to paint several paintings on hunting themes.
The customer, whom the artist later jokingly called "my first Lorenzo Medici", was pleased with the work and paid five kopecks for each painting.
His parents insisted on a more "earthly" profession. In 1881, he entered the Moscow University in the medical faculty, and two years later he transferred to the law faculty at the University of Odessa and studied there until 1885.
He did not stop painting during his student years – he took lessons at the Moscow school-studio of E.S. Sorokin, learned the art of etching from I.I. Shishkin, and then passed the competition to the Royal Munich Academy of Painting and left for Germany. These years were a time of inspiration and formation of the master.
In 1889, he married the pianist Rosalia Kauffman. Soon his painting "News from the Homeland" was acquired by P.M. Tretyakov for the Tretyakov Gallery. Pasternak got the opportunity to travel to Paris, which he had dreamed of all his life. After the trip, his brush and pencil became freer and more refined. Pasternak began to use a new technique – a combination of tempera and pastel, he drew a lot with charcoal. His works became more dynamic, expressive and natural.
Leonid participated in the annual exhibitions of the Itinerants. At the next exhibition, Pasternak's painting "The Debutante" attracted the attention of Leo Tolstoy. They are introduced, and the Pasternaks become Tolstoy's frequent guests in Moscow and Yasnaya Polyana, where the artist draws the writer and creates illustrations for War and Peace and Resurrection, which were approved by Tolstoy himself and awarded a medal at the 1900 Paris World Exhibition.
By this time, Leonid Pasternak was already a professor at the renowned Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and would remain in this post for more than a quarter of a century.
In 1921, Pasternak, along with his wife and daughters, went to Germany for treatment - he needed an eye operation. Sons Boris and Alexander remained in Moscow. After the operation, the Pasternak family was in no hurry to return - a lot of work had to be completed in Germany.
In 1924, Pasternak went on an expedition to Palestine, where he made numerous drawings of local places and residents.
In 1927 and 1932, two personal exhibitions of the artist were held in Berlin.
In 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany, and Pasternak and his wife left for their daughters, who by that time were already living in England.
In 1938, fleeing from the Nazis, he moved to London and then Oxford, where he wrote his memoirs.
Leonid Pasternak died in Oxford on May 31, 1945, having lived a bright and fulfilling life, was happy in his marriage and realized himself as an artist. The artist's works are now presented in many museums and private collections in Europe, America, Asia and Australia.

✍️ For materials: Events calendar, odessa-memory